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According to experts from the American Cancer Society, the Czech Republic’s tobacco tax is too low and does not cover the state’s expenses related to smoking. Hana Ross, the strategic director of the society’s International Tobacco Control Research Program, told journalists on Wednesday that the price of cigarettes in the Czech Republic was much lower than the European average. She added that increasing the price of cigarettes and banning smoking in bars and restaurants were amongst the most efficient measures in fighting the dangers of smoking.

The head of the European Commission José Barroso congratulated Prime Minister Nečas and the new Czech ministers on Tuesday. In a message addressed to the PM, Mr Barroso said he was sure that that under the new leadership the Czech Republic would be successful in overcoming the economic crisis and its consequences. The European Commission he said would do everything possible to support the necessary reforms that Mr Nečas’ team is preparing and he wished them luck in the tasks ahead.

The Czech Republic needs another 130,000 blood donors in order to meet EU recommendations, the Czech Press Agency reports. The number of active donors has apparently taken a downturn due to more donors giving blood to commercial centres that pay for plasma; the donor database has declined by more than 100.000 donors in the last five years.

The West Bohemian spa town of Mariánské Lázně has been pledged 17 million crowns from European Unions funds to counter the spread of Giant Hogweed. The massive and fast spreading plant is a major problem round the town. The funds will be used to help pay for chemical and physical removal as part of a pilot project over the next four years. The project will focus on a stretch of countryside along the Kosí and Hutský streams. The area occupied by the invasive plant has increased fivefold along the Kosí river over the last 15 years according to regional experts.

The construction company Metrostav has submitted a report on the collapse of the Blanka Tunnel to the City of Prague. However, the city says it will not release the report to the public. City hall spokesman Tomáš Wolf said the report was being prepared for Friday’s meeting of the City Council and would not be make public before then. No cause has yet been given for the partial collapse, which left one worker buried under rubble near Prague Castle and a gaping hole in the ground outside a government office. Prague mayor Pavel Bém has initiated a police investigation and the Czech Mining Office is doing likewise. The Blanka Tunnel has partially collapsed on two other occasions since it went under construction in 2007. When completed, it will be the longest municipal tunnel in Europe.

The Czech Republic scored a major diplomatic victory over neighbouring Germany and Austria this week after the European Union granted the cherished protected geographical status to the country’s pungent Olomoucké tvarůžky cheese. That means only the original cheese produced in the village of Loštice - near the Moravian city of Olomouc - can sell the product under that name; everything else is an impostor.

The region of Olomouc is to discontinue its coverage of patients’ healthcare fees as of July 1. The regional council made the decision on Monday based on a proposal from community councillors. The governor’s office has been covering the 30-crown fee since early last year at a cost of 42 million crowns. Healthcare fees of 30 crowns at the doctor’s and for individual prescriptions, as well as higher amounts for emergency ward visits and hospital stays, were first introduced by Mirek Topolánek’s government in 2008. Earlier this month, coverage by regional governments was labelled “discriminatory” by the European Commission, which said that either all patients in the country should be covered – or none.

Members of the Czech upper house, the Senate, on Wednesday backed the Czech government’s stand against a European proposal for a tax on banks in spite of support for it from left leaning Social Democrats. The European Commission proposal calls for the tax to ensure that in future banking crises a special fund will be available to bail out banks without the state having to immediately step in. Germany, France and Britain have already said they will introduce such a tax. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer opposed the move last week at a summit of European leaders in Brussels. He said there were too many uncertainties about it. European affairs minister Juraj Chmiel warned on Wednesday that the tax would be passed onto bank customers in the form of higher charges.

The European Commission has approved the Czech Republic’s plan for film production incentives. The programme allows the state to return up to 20% of the money spent by film productions in the Czech Republic and will be effective until the end of 2015. The scheme is intended to bring back what was a thriving industry until the first half of the decade, and was hurt by similar incentives being introduced in other European countries. In 2004 alone, foreign film production in the Czech Republic declined by 70%

Foreign film producers have good reason to return to Prague. Once a thriving filming location, the Czech Republic lost out to competition from Hungary, Romania and other countries of central and eastern Europe which offered lower prices and lucrative tax rebates. In an effort to lure them back, the Czech government came up with its own incentives package which has now been approved the European Commission.